I think the title is Breck's to lose, but STA and Hermantown are not far behind. Hibbing would be the darkhorse and could scare the top three, but would have to play a near perfect game to beat a stacked team like Breck.

Breck will be very tough to beat this year as they will be able to roll 3
strong lines.
[u]
2 top lines could be the best in the state.[/u]
Opperman(Mr Hockey candidate) centering one line with Lindstrom and Colford (Juniors) on the wings.

Anderle centering the Iverson boys (Wes and Keegan) on the next line.

3rd line has a big strong kid (Higgs) that transferred from out east
along with 2 speedsters (O'Connor and Hedricks)

Defense
Is anchored by 2 seniors- All State candidate Austin Rudnick
and Ben Techmeyer.
Derrick Witala who has a year of varsity experience and newcomer Otto Haeg are two very skilled sophomore defenseman that will also be asked to play big roles this year.
2 senior newcomers (Oesterlie and Lawrence) will also see plenty of ice time.

Goalie
Senior Jack Kenney has earned the starting spot but will be pushed
by a very good sophomore from the St. Louis Park bantam A state tournament team (Henry Johnson)

I'd give Hibbing better odds, they're returning most of their state tourney talent including Adam Johnson (though I will say he didn't make nearly as much noise in Elites as the Breck boys). I won't quibble with Breck being best, but I think STA and Hermantown are NOT locked ahead of Hibbing because they lost a lot of senior firepower. First games will be interesting.

For some reason, I have a feeling Blake is going to give Breck fits this year too -- return the "favor" of last year's results. Just an intuition. Stranger things have happened (WBL beating H-M for example).

i think it is between breck sta and hermantown. i would give brck the edge when it comes to forwrds although sta will have a very good top line with johnson krieger and commers but not much depth after that. i would give hermantown the edge in better defence and sta the edge in goal. it will be interesting how hermantowns goaltending will be.

New Prague returns its very good freshman line from last year and its top goalie. With a few seniors with expirience returning they should be formidable. They will be small but very fast with some newcomers from Bantams that should step in nicely. Some ?'s on D tho! Lourdes will be returning their top scoring line with ?'s on D also and a new goalie.

Chalktalk wrote:

What about New Prague in 1A? With a solid group of juniors and a good coach, can they take out Lourdes?

New Prague returns its very good freshman line from last year and its top goalie. With a few seniors with expirience returning they should be formidable. They will be small but very fast with some newcomers from Bantams that should step in nicely. Some ?'s on D tho! Lourdes will be returning their top scoring line with ?'s on D also and a new goalie.

Chalktalk wrote:

What about New Prague in 1A? With a solid group of juniors and a good coach, can they take out Lourdes?

Top 4 seads in order I predict will be...STA, Breck, Hermantown, Little Falls.

The title game will be between STA and Breck with STA winning.

Of coarse its only a preseason prediction and we all know how well those seem to turn out.

Oh im not trying to say New Prague doesnt have a chance, Lourdes was just my predictions, both teams have some great depth and talent to make this a very interesting section, I wouldnt be shocked if New Prague beat Lourdes either.